Etna cross country runner Whelan takes second in state

Monday

Dec 3, 2012 at 12:27 PMDec 3, 2012 at 12:34 PM

Bill Choy

Etna High senior runner John Whelan ended his season and cross country career on a high note by finishing second overall in the entire state in Division 5 at the 2012 CIF State Cross Country Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday, Nov. 24. Whelan finished in seventh place last season.Below, Whelan talks about his experiences at the race.“Obviously I was slightly disappointed finishing second, but I am still very happy with the race and result.“The race started out unusually slow for a state championship race, the first mile was around 5:05. (It is usually under 5:00. It was about 4:50 last year in my race, and can be as fast as 4:38, which was the case in this year’s D4 boys). After the first mile, I took the lead and began to press the pace, soon I had dropped everyone except for eventual third place finisher Connor Clark of University HS. We came through two miles in about 10:09 (the second mile is much hillier and more difficult than the first). The final 1.1 miles retraces the first mile in reverse. At this point, it was Connor Clark and I battling up front, with neither one of us giving up any ground. With about 300 meters to go, I made a final surge and got some distance on Connor, but within the last 100-70 meters winner Trevor Reinhart of Marin Academy came from behind with an incredible sprint finish.“I ran my race how I needed to, running up front and battling is my style, Trevor just ran a better race and has a lot of talent and race savvy. I can accept that and am still very happy with my state race and my season. I had amazing support during that race from my coaches (my two previous coaches Phillip Johnson and Jered Ratliff made the long drive with Les Helsley to support me), my family (my parents and two of my aunts and uncles were there), and the many athletes, coaches and parents from across the county and North Section that were cheering for me as well. I feel so blessed to have had so much support and opportunity throughout my journey of high school cross country.“Also, I’d like to congratulate all the Siskiyou County athletes that represented our piece of the state on the biggest stage. Especially the Yreka guys that had to run in conditions about 20 degrees warmer than what we’ve been training in the past three weeks and run in the race that went out at the fastest pace of any race. They didn’t get the result they were gunning for, but they ran a gutsy race and will return five of their top seven next year.“Next week I’m flying down to southern California to run in the Footlocker West Regional cross country race. It is a non school federation race for high school age athletes from the western US where the top 10 finishers qualify to the Footlocker national race.”